Unexpected Mates (Red Moon Shifters Book 1)

by Grace Brennan

  Parker shook her head in exasperation. Her dad sure was holding on to his belief that she was a lesbian. “No, Dad, I’m not gay. Totally straight.”

  “Hmph,” her dad grunted. “Guess I’ll have to readjust years worth of thinking, then.”

  Her mom finally seemed to come out of the daze she’d been in. “Oh, get over it, Rob. Parker… you’re going to have a baby? Where’s the father? He didn’t want to come to Wyoming with you? He shouldn’t have let you drive so far on your own. How far along are you?”

  Parker twisted her fingers together. “I’m four, almost five, months along. The father… he doesn’t live in California. He lives here in Eagle Creek.”

  “Eagle Creek? Four months ago? So it happened the weekend of Tiffany’s wedding. I didn’t see you with anyone at the wedding. Who is it?” Her mother said rapid fire.

  “He didn’t come to the wedding. It happened the night of the bachelorette party. I ran into an old friend at Pete’s,” Parker explained, stretching the truth. They didn’t need to know Ty hadn’t remembered her from school. “You guys probably know who he is. Tyler MacKeltar.”

  “Tyler MacKeltar? The one who owns that farm, Blue Moon? Strange name for a farm,” her mom muttered. “He was a… nice boy.”

  “It’s Red Moon, honey,” her dad said. “Nice boy isn’t exactly how I remember him. Hoodlum is more like it. I haven’t heard much about him lately, but I’m sure that hasn’t changed. He’s got all those tattoos, and I’m sure he’s on steroids or something. Have you seen how big he is?”

  Parker laughed. “Dad, he’s not on steroids. He owns a farm, remember? He does a lot of manual labor. Besides, I have a tattoo, and I’m not a hoodlum.”

  “A very tasteful rose on your ankle, dear. Not a bunch of skulls. Although I don’t see anything wrong with his. They’re sexy,” her mom replied.

  “Janelle!” Her dad exclaimed as Parker looked at her mom in surprise.

  “What? It’s true. Tyler is a very good looking young man. Well done, Parker.”

  Parker burst out laughing, some of her tension easing even as her dad glowered at his wife.

  “I don’t want you guys to get the wrong impression. There’s not a wedding imminent or anything. I just told Ty I was pregnant this week when I got here, and we’re taking it slow, getting to know each other better before the baby is born. We’re not jumping into anything just because I’m pregnant.”

  “I think that’s wise,” her dad grumbled as her mom swatted him on the arm. “What? It is. I’m not too sure of him, no matter how ‘sexy’ you think he is, Janelle.”

  “Would you feel like that if it was Gordon? Don’t judge a book by its cover, Robert.”

  Parker wrinkled her nose at the mention of Gordon. He was the son of her dad’s bank manager and a sniveling, pretentious little weasel. He had been even back in elementary school.

  “At least we know he’d be good for her. He’s a good man with a great job,” her dad retorted.

  Parker held her hands up as her mom opened her mouth to reply. “It doesn’t matter what kind of man Gordon is. I’m having Ty’s baby, and no matter what happens between us, he’ll always be in my life. Even in yours. He’s your grandchild’s father. I love you, Daddy, but you’re going to have to get used to that.”

  “Are you staying in town, Parker?” Her mother asked as her dad sat back in his chair, grumbling under his breath.

  “For the foreseeable future, yes. It’s possible I may move back here. I don’t need to stay in San Diego to work, and I have the baby to think of now. Everything is kind of up in the air right now, though. Ty and I have a lot to work through.”

  “I think having both parents close would be best for the baby, and your father and I would be absolutely thrilled to have you close again. I’d love to be able to get my hands on that baby whenever I wanted, too,” her mom said. “I agree, though, that you need to work through this with Tyler. It’s a big change, and more than anything, we want you to be happy.”

  Her dad sighed. “Your mom is right. Your happiness, and the happiness and well being of the baby, are what matters the most. If you say Tyler is a good man… well, I’ll believe you for now, but I reserve the right to change my mind whenever I want. Can I go get your bags, now that we’ve worked that out?”

  Parker shifted on her chair. “I’m staying at Red Moon. Now don’t look like that, Daddy. You just said you were going to give Ty a chance. Besides, I’m back home to try to get to know Ty better. I can’t do that very well if I’m here all the time.”

  “I think that’s a good idea,” her mom said with a quelling glance at her father. “You should bring Tyler to dinner sometime soon, Parker. Let us get to know our grandbaby’s daddy. Maybe then your father will chill out,” she added pointedly.

  “I’ll ask when he’s free,” Parker promised, inwardly sighing. Coming here for dinner was probably the last thing Ty would want to do, but she thought it was a necessary evil. Her dad was going to be uptight about Ty until he got to know him better.

  “You do that. You should tell Tiffany soon, too. She’ll be hurt if she hears about your pregnancy from someone else.”

  Parker agreed, and they spent another thirty minutes or so catching up before Parker left with a promise to call and visit often.

  She got in her car and then just sat for a moment. That had gone better than she’d ever imagined it would, even with her dad’s reluctance toward Ty. Now she just needed to tell her sister, but she wasn’t near as nervous about that as she had been about her parents.

  Putting the car in drive, she backed out of the driveway and headed back to Red Moon with a smile on her face. Everything seemed to be working out.

  Parker pulled her car to a stop at the farm and killed the engine before getting out. She waved at Chase, who was coming out of the equipment shed, as she walked to the house. She took a deep breath of the pure country air, as she always did, before she let herself inside. After living in the city for so long, she couldn’t get enough of the clean air here. Something else she’d missed about home, and something she’d never even known she’d missed until she was here.

  She paused inside the door, taking in the delicious smell of dinner permeating the air, a bit surprised at the sense of homecoming she felt. She’d only been here for a few days and yet this place felt like hers already. That was dangerous thinking, though. Even if she did move back home, the odds were heavily in favor of her not living here.

  She was trying to push away the sudden sadness that had swamped her at that thought when Ty came out of the office. Her breath caught as she saw him. He was big, powerful, and was looking more gorgeous than a man had a right to. She still sometimes had trouble believing she was here because she’d had sex with him. Him! Her childhood crush and a man most women would give their right arms to sleep with.

  It had felt like a dream afterward, when she’d gone back to California. It wasn’t until she’d found out that she was pregnant that it had suddenly become very real. Sometimes, though, even with the pregnancy, it was hard to believe.

  Ty spotted her and walked over. “Hey, Parker. How did it go?”

  “Pretty well. Better than I thought it would, although my dad thinks you’re a hoodlum.”

  Ty laughed, his deep baritone washing over her and giving her goosebumps. “He’s not wrong. I used to be a bit of one, but I like to think I’ve grown up now.”

  “I think it’s all the tattoos that give off that impression now,” Parker responded with a smile. “I had to remind him that I have a tattoo myself, so if that makes you a hoodlum, so am I.”

  Ty’s eyebrows shot up on his forehead. “You have a tattoo? How did I not know this?”

  Parker turned her leg to the side and gestured at it. “It’s just a small rose. Most people don’t notice it.”

  Ty studied the rose on her ankle before his eyes slowly came back up, tracing her bare legs. When his eyes met hers, Parker couldn’t stop the shiver that wracked her body
at the heat in his gaze. “Still, I paid thorough attention to that gorgeous body of yours that night. I thought I had seen everything, but then again, I wasn’t paying too much attention to your ankles. Much better places for me to focus my attention.”

  Parker couldn’t tear her eyes from his. She shifted a bit as she felt her nipples pucker and an ache start deep in her core. She watched as his eyes dropped to her lips, and her own did the same to his. He had full lips, the lower one slightly fuller, and she had the sudden urge to nip it, hard. She felt herself leaning toward him and felt nothing but relief when he did the same. She needed his lips on hers. Needed it with an intensity that stole what was left of her breath.

  She jumped when she heard Chase calling Tyler’s name from somewhere in the house. Cursing Chase’s rotten timing as Ty pulled back and looked the other way, Parker struggled to control her breathing. She was going to combust if something didn’t give soon. And if it was this bad after only a few days, how in the world was she going to survive here for so long?

  Ty turned back to her, studying her face as he did so. “I better go see what he wants. I wanted to let you know that I have some stuff on the farm that I need to check out after dinner, so I’ll be out of the house for a couple hours tonight.”

  Parker nodded her understanding, not trusting her voice enough to speak, and watched as he turned to find his brother. Feeling unsettled by the depth of her emotions, she went to get her laptop. Maybe doing some work would help her get her mind off of things. She’d heard pregnant women were hormonal and felt things strongly. She hoped that was the case, because if this need, this yearning, she felt for Ty was real and how she truly felt… She wouldn’t recover when she had to walk away. And it sure seemed like she would have to, because Ty couldn’t seem to make up his mind about what he really wanted from her.

  Chapter Eleven

  Tyler walked outside after dinner, breathing deeply of the night air. Tonight he was giving his wolf his body. He’d needed it before tonight, but after he’d almost kissed Parker again, he was desperate to shift and let the wolf take over.

  He stalked toward the woods, head down. He was beginning to seriously doubt his ability to keep away from Parker, to resist her. It didn’t help that he didn’t want to, not in the least. The only thing stopping him was the worry that if he took it further, he would hurt her or the baby. Because there was no doubt in his mind that if he kissed her, it would end with her in his bed.

  Ty reached the woods and pulled his shirt off before easing the zipper of his jeans down. Just the thought of kissing Parker, the thought of her in his bed, was enough to make him hard. Breath hissing out of his body, he got the zipper the rest of the way down, and then hurried to shuck his boots and his jeans. He hunched inward, and the sound of his bones breaking echoed off the trees as a blinding flash of pain shot through his body. It all happened in the blink of an eye and a moment later, his massive black wolf was shaking out his fur.

  His ears perked up and he listened with hearing that was even better than it was in his human form as the wolf turned its huge head and gazed back to the house. Back to where Parker was. Apparently, the longing he felt for her was just as potent in either form.

  Giving his head a shake, Ty turned around and took off at a run, streaking through the woods. He made it to the river before he slowed down, and then he took his time, sniffing his way along the bank until he came to the clearing. He sat for a moment, looking up at the sky.

  Everything was always clearer in his wolf form. More simplistic. He had instincts, he had needs like hunger, but there wasn’t the bombardment of emotions, weighed down with human concerns.

  As a wolf, everything was clear.

  And what was the clearest of all was that he wanted Parker. All of her. The wolf thought Ty was stupid for holding back, an idiot for putting off what he thought was inevitable. Parker was theirs. The pup was theirs. Take her and keep her.

  Huffing a sigh, Ty stood up, thinking he would run for a little longer before he headed back to the house. Turning for the woods, he stilled as he scented the air, his hackles raising as he scanned the surroundings.

  That smell didn’t belong here. Didn’t belong on the farm, on his property, and sure as hell didn’t belong so close to Parker and his pup. He inhaled deeply, confirming his first instincts were right. There was another wolf shifter around. The scent was different than that of a normal wild wolf. This one was a female. He didn’t know any female wolf shifters, and that only made his hackles raise more.

  He couldn’t allow an unknown wolf shifter around his little family.

  Lowering his nose to the ground, he found the scent trail and began following it. Hitting a dead end a few minutes later when the trail ended at the water’s edge, he growled low in his throat in frustration before turning around and following it back the other way. Through the woods, winding in every direction, before it led him back to the woods around the house. His eyes narrowed at how close to the house the trail was, and he continued tracking it as it led him in a large circle around the house. It never left the woods, so whoever it was hadn’t come closer to the house, but that wasn’t much of a consolation. Anywhere on the property would have been too close.

  He threw back his head and howled in frustration. This wolf shifter had to know what they were, and it was watching them. Coming onto their property from the river, where they couldn’t track without leaving MacKeltar land. Ty and Chase never left Red Moon in their wolf forms. They couldn’t attract attention, and huge wolves, much larger than a normal wolf, would attract the wrong kind of attention if they were seen.

  Chase came jogging into the woods a few moments later. “You shouldn’t howl this close to the house. You’ll scare Parker.”

  Shit. He hadn’t even thought of that. Ty quickly shifted back to human form, immediately telling Chase what he’d found. “The trail ends at the river, where we can’t track it further,” he finished.

  “Another wolf? A female? You’re sure about this?” Chase asked.

  Ty shot him a look. “You think I would mistake something like that?”

  “Shit. We’ve never had an unknown shifter here before. I don’t like this, at all. If they were here for a good reason, they would have talked to us.” Chase started pulling his clothes off. “I’m going to check it out, take in the scent so I’ll recognize it again.”

  “Be careful. I’m going to go check on Parker. I don’t like that this shifter shows up just when Parker gets here.”

  Chase nodded and shifted into his light brown wolf, nose down to catch the scent as he walked away. Ty turned to get his clothes and then dressed before he made his way back to the house, moving at a fast clip. He felt anxious and he knew he wouldn’t calm until he laid his eyes on Parker and reassured himself and his wolf that she was okay.

  Parker finished washing her face, studying her reflection as she patted it dry with a towel. She wondered what Ty saw when he looked at her. He obviously found her attractive, and although she tried hard to see what he did, she didn’t understand it. She was still just plain old Parker. With a sigh, she put her glasses back on before opening the door and stepping out. She turned toward her room but paused when she heard heavy footsteps on the stairs.

  Turning, she saw Ty reaching the top of the stairs. He hesitated when he saw her, a look of relief crossing his features that confused her.

  “Hey, Ty. You get finished up outside?”

  He didn’t answer, just walked forward and didn’t stop until he was almost touching her. She looked up, frowning a little, and was just opening her mouth to ask him what was wrong when he lowered his head and took her mouth with his.

  Her breath left her body in a whoosh as he backed her up against the wall, plastering his body to hers. She lifted up on her tiptoes, one of her arms wrapping around his neck while she rested her other hand on his cheek so she could feel his jaw working.

  He caressed her lips with his for a moment before sweeping his tongue into her m
outh to duel with hers. Parker moaned as her arm tightened around his neck and she arched more body more firmly into his. Her blood was heating quickly and she could feel herself getting wet just from his kiss alone.

  He’d had this effect on her four months ago, too. Full blown, instant need, right from the start.

  Ty rolled his hips, rubbing his already hard length against her belly as his kiss got more aggressive. Tangling a hand in her hair, he guided her away from the wall and walked her a few steps down the hall and into his room. He kicked the door shut with his foot and then pushed her up against the bedroom wall, intensifying the kiss even more.

  He licked at her mouth, seeming intent on tasting every inch of it, before he sucked her bottom lip into his mouth. He nipped it as he released it, trailing his lips across her jaw to her ear. He worked his way to her ear, where he treated it to a nip that sent lightning spreading through her body from the contact. He continued the nipping and sucking down her neck, and Parker gasped as she felt her body light up.

  She tugged on his hair and he returned his mouth to hers, kissing her aggressively as his hand cupped her hips and tugged her snugly against him. Well, as snug as he could get with her growing belly between them. She took the initiative and returned the nipping kisses he’d given her. That lower lip of his had taunted her for days, and now she finally had access to it.

  Ty groaned as she licked at it, and she could feel the vibration of it down to her toes. Rubbing against him, trying to relieve some of the ache she felt, Parker tugged at his hair as he tangled his tongue with hers again.

  He suddenly ripped his mouth from hers and pulled away, cursing softly as he paced away from her. Chest heaving for breath, Parker leaned against the wall, body feeling bereft of the touch of him against her.

  Chest heaving like hers, Ty ran a hand through his hair in agitation. “I can’t do this.”